


Crossing Grimm Waters

by gnomie_gnome



Series: Thus Kindly She Did Scatter [1]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Action/Adventure, Angst, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Multi, Past Relationship(s), Post Team STRQ, Pre-Canon, STR crossed, So many OCs, Swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-20
Updated: 2020-06-20
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:07:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24813553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gnomie_gnome/pseuds/gnomie_gnome
Summary: Team STRQ no longer mattered. At least that's what Raven keeps telling herself ever since she returned to her tribe all those years ago. Raven thought that she was done with Huntress nonsense until a ghost from her past appears, begging for her help with one last mission.Team STRQ was torn apart. Has been ever since Raven abandoned them all those years ago. Summer thought she could carry on like a strong Huntress, but when her next mission is too big to do alone, she finds herself needing help from the one person that broke her heart.Can Raven and Summer put aside their history for the sake of the mission? Or is it only a matter of time until all their bad blood boils over?
Relationships: Raven Branwen/Summer Rose
Series: Thus Kindly She Did Scatter [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1794814
Kudos: 5





	Crossing Grimm Waters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Raven's solo life amongst bandits was slowly getting better. It wasn't exactly how she imagined it, but she was getting by. All of that is about to change when Raven notices someone outside of the Branwen tribe was watching her.

Deep within the verdant Anima forest, two children struggle to fight off a pack of Beowulves.

This was actually a common occurrence all across Remnant. Civilian settlements like human villages or Faunus caravans are usually short-lived, only lasting a decade at most before they are wiped out by typical disasters like violent storms, bandit raids, or large Grimm attacks. However, children usually survive these disasters initially, only to find themselves weak, tired, and alone in the wilderness. The only hope for child survivors is for someone to rescue them before the weaker Grimm finds them first. 

However, Raven Branwen wasn’t going to save these kids anytime soon. Instead, she watched them fight as she casually leaned against a tree, one hand held up to block out any morning sunlight that managed to break through the forest canopy. It wasn't Raven's job to kill the Grimm for the children; her job was to wait and see how they fare against a small pack of Beowulves.

These young adolescent kids shouldn't need her help anyway. They weren’t some battered victims of a fallen village, defending themselves with nothing but rocks and broken branches. The girl and her younger brother were bandits, armed with real weapons and dressed in rough leathers. Fighting a couple of Grimm shouldn't be this hard for them! When Raven was the boy's age, she and Qrow would have already killed all three Beowulves and the Alpha by now. The fact that these two were still tripping over themselves was an embarrassment to the Branwen tribe.

“Shay! Keep both of your hands on your damn weapon!” Raven yelled to the grey-eyed boy with shaggy brown hair, who was fighting a Beowulf with nothing but a shaky pistol. She should be mad that the boy she's been training for years is still making rookie mistakes. However, leading the tribe's weakest fighters outside of camp for Grimm practice was the only time the whole camp wasn't breathing down Raven neck. While most of the tribe was still somewhat suspicious of Raven for returning without her brother, that distrust was no match for everyone's hatred of babysitting duty. So the boy's constantly fucking up just guarantees that Raven will get more alone time for in the future. 

The boy seemed to take Raven’s advice to heart and held his pistol with both hands. With feet planted on the ground, he fired at the Beowulf, which caused the beast to stumble as the shot took out its knee. A marginal improvement, but Raven rolled her eyes when she noticed that the boy had been holding his breath the entire time and was on the verge of passing out. 

Raven turned her attention to Heather, the older girl with eyes the colour of her namesake and ashy blonde hair she kept in a chopstick bun. She was more capable than her brother, wielding her twin katanas with reasonable skill as she took down the first Beowulf. The girl smiled when she noticed Raven watching her, and started adding extra flourishes to each of her strikes just to show-off. The performance didn't last long, because she stumbled during the fourth flourish, which gave another Beowulf the opportunity to knock the blades out of her hands. 

As the girl rolled away from the Grimm to retrieve her katanas, Raven noticed something white fluttered between the trees. Focusing on the white, Raven was eventually able to make out a translucent form standing about twenty or so metres away. The white she saw was the figure's stark white hood, its' scarlet underside flicked into view as the cloak billowed weakly in the wind. Dread shot through her heart as the ghost seemed to lock eyes with her, for Raven recognized the faint figure in the trees.

 _'It can’t be her, can it?’_ Raven thought _‘I must be seeing things. Actually, it wouldn’t be the first time someone mistook her for a ghost, so it might be her. Why would she be here! There is no reason for her-’_

Raven’s frantic thought process was interrupted by a large claw striking across her midsection, which knocked her into one of the nearby trees. Apparently Raven’s internal panic was loud enough to alert the pack’s Alpha that there was a dumbfounded human just standing on the sidelines. _‘Well,’_ she thought, sneering at Grimm as she reached for her weapon. _‘I can’t let such a puny Grimm get away with that!’_

Raven unsheathed her weapon, an extremely long sword she named Omen, from its scabbard and charged towards the Alpha, determined to kill this beast as fast as possible. She was able to get a few good blows before she had to dodge another claw attack. Eager to get this over with, Raven gripped Omen with both hands and with a heavy lunge swept under the Alpha’s legs, knocking the Grimm onto its back.

While the beast was down, Raven shifted into her bird form and quickly shot up in the air. She climbed higher and higher, the cold air biting her skin as the wind rushed through her feathers. Once she flew high enough, Raven looped around and dived at the Alpha. The ground rushed towards her, and at the very last second Raven turned back to human and impaled the Grimm with over half of the blade length.

Raven watched the Alpha thrashed under her heel, sword held firmly in place as it let out a long whine before it stilled. She continued to stare at the inky black form, not daring to move in case the Alpha was merely pretending to be dead to catch her off guard again. Only when the Grimm started to disintegrate did Raven feel it was safe to look away from the body and towards her surroundings.

The bandit children somehow managed to finish off the last two Beowulves while Raven was dealing with the Alpha. Both children were a bit tired and scuffed up, but overall unharmed. Raven then scanned the trees for the ghost, but only spotted a few white & red rose petals gently floating to the ground where the ghost once stood.

“Heather,” Raven said in a commanding voice as she pressed a button on Omen’s hilt to detach the blade. No point in trying to recover the brittle dust blade buried deep in the beast when she still had plenty of fresh replacement blades stored in her scabbard. “Take your brother and check for any stragglers behind us. I’ll make sure the path is clear and we’ll head back to camp together.” 

“Yes, Raven.” the girl responded with tired enthusiasm and dragged her reluctant brother away from where Raven last saw the ghost.

Raven hopped off the Alpha's decaying body, sheathing Omen's hilt with a small click as she watched the bandit children walk away. She can't let any of the bandits know that someone might have followed her. The tribe's weary trust in her would completely shatter if either of the kids mentioned that they saw her dart off into the trees to meet up with a barely visible stranger.

So Raven waited. She waited and waited until she could no longer see the bandit children. Once she was sure that they were truly out of sight, she darted into the trees to deal with for her ghost.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *fake gasp* Who could it possibly be?
> 
> I know that I tagged this fic as having "so many OCs," but the bandit children in this chapter are both loosely based on canon side characters. Can you guess who they are?
> 
> Anyways, I hope that y'all like this first of many chapters!


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